Gingrich Vows Push for More B-2 Funding

House Speaker Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) thrust himself into the debate over the Northrop Grumman B-2 bomber for the first time Friday, pledging to push for congressional funding this year for 29 more of the so-called Stealth aircraft.

“This is absolutely the highest priority we should have for defense procurement in the near future,” Gingrich said in a telephone interview.

Gingrich made his comments after a 90-minute visit to Northrop production facilities in Palmdale, where he cast the B-2 as a key political issue in this fall’s presidential elections.

Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole has already weighed in on the issue. He promised in March to double B-2 production, which accounts for roughly 8,400 direct Northrop jobs at Palmdale and Pico Rivera and perhaps twice that number throughout the state economy.

Northrop currently has orders for 21 bombers, which will be completed in 1998. The program remains one of the two biggest military programs in the state and a buttress of the military aircraft industry in Southern California.

But it is not one of the Clinton administration’s favorites. In a decision that left Democratic supporters of the B-2 stunned, President Clinton in February rejected putting money into his fiscal 1997 budget for 20 more B-2s. Northrop had offered to sell the Pentagon the additional bombers for $15 billion.

Instead, he agreed to buy one more bomber and ordered the Pentagon to conduct yet another study of the issue.

Adding 29 aircraft to the order, as Gingrich proposed, would probably extend the program for at least 10 more years at an estimated cost of more than $20 billion. That would preserve as many as 6,000 jobs that would otherwise be lost as the existing program winds down.

Analysts said Gingrich’s public commitment enhances the likelihood that more orders will be placed for the bomber, despite earlier setbacks.

“This really puts Clinton on the spot,” said Loren Thompson, a defense consultant at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. “This is the biggest single point of vulnerability for Clinton in Southern California.”

A senior White House official said Friday, however, that Clinton has not changed his position on the B-2, which was based on the evaluation of senior Pentagon officials who have insisted they cannot afford more B-2s.

Until now, Gingrich has kept a low profile on the B-2, attempting to navigate between Republican fiscal conservatives put off by the $15-billion price tag for more bombers and the Republican defense hawks who want more B-2s.

Gingrich pledged his support to about 1,000 Northrop workers inside the facility in Palmdale, which is closed to the public. After inspecting the Northrop production line, he also climbed into the cockpit of one of the bombers.

A Democratic staffer in Congress characterized Gingrich’s B-2 visit as a political ploy, saying, “He couldn’t be talking in late August, days before the Democratic convention, without a political agenda.”

But defense consultant Donald Hicks, a former Pentagon official and Northrop executive, said, “There is no political percentage in this for Newt unless he believes in it.”

Northrop has been seeking to get additional B-2 orders before the thousands of skilled workers on the program are dispersed. The company has said that once the work force is furloughed, the cost of any future production would increase sharply. Gingrich said he will attempt to put funding in the 1997 budget, for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, for initial purchases of parts for the 29 aircraft.

In addition to being at the center of a political issue, the B-2 is also at the center of an intense power struggle among the four military services.

As defense spending continues to fall, the overlaps and redundancies in the roles and missions performed by the branches have become increasingly difficult to afford.

B-2 supporters hold out the bomber as an alternative to cruise missiles, aircraft carriers, short-range attack jets and a host of other weapons, but those other systems have deep political patronage in Congress and the Pentagon.

The B-2 study ordered by Clinton, for example, has degenerated into a nasty turf battle, in which the services have been sniping over the assumptions that will determine who comes out the winner.

Critics say the study is based on an outdated computer model, known as Tac War, that is incapable of evaluating many of the issues at the crux of current national security concerns. These include the impact of terrorism on U.S. bases in the Middle East, according to experts close to the study.

The military has leaned heavily against more B-2s, arguing it would rather have more short-range tactical jets that it could base overseas. But seven former secretaries of defense and a number of key retired Air Force generals have endorsed the B-2.

Gingrich said the B-2 is a more effective and low-cost way to project U.S. military power than basing short-range fighters at risky foreign bases.

“What you want is a system that allows you to reach across the planet in 24 hours’ notice and deliver precision weapons in an effective way,” Gingrich said. “The B-2 has that capacity.”

In addition, Thompson said a series of secret war games conducted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff has raised serious concerns about the Air Force’s lack of long-range attack aircraft.

“The bottom line is that the Air Force strategy is in trouble,” Thompson said.

In the interview, Gingrich said he believes it is time to fundamentally reexamine the division of responsibilities of the military services, which was first cast after World War II in an accord negotiated in Key West, Fla.

“I believe unequivocally that we have to revisit the agreement of Key West,” Gingrich said. “We have told the large bureaucracies, tell us what makes you comfortable. [That] is not an adequate answer for long-term national defense.”